The hallways were filled with supplies and file cabinets and the walls needed a coat of paint. At a glance last week, Barat Academy didn't look like a school that will be ready to open Aug. 31.

But the clutter wasn't a deterrent to students and parents who worked to get the school in shape. Barat moved 11 miles Aug. 16 from Dardenne Prairie to a new home across the Missouri River in Chesterfield.

"If they had classes in a barn, we would still go wherever it was," said Beth Roberts, of Troy. Her daughter, Megan, 15, is a sophomore at the school.

Roberts and other parents, along with students, unpacked and sorted library books, art supplies, athletic equipment and other items from their old campus. Students volunteered to help landscape and paint.

Earlier this month the school signed an agreement to move to the former Gateway Academy at 17815 Wild Horse Creek Road.

Barat, an independent Catholic high school, had been evicted from its former location along Highway 40 for failing to pay rent. The school opened four years ago.

School President Debby Watson said enrollment is expected to be 200 to 220 students this year, down from about 260 last year. The school has already made some adjustments; it cancelled its 2011 varsity football schedule because the number of athletes dropped from 21 to 14.

Watson would not say if the academy was buying or leasing the St. Louis County facility.

Unlike the academy's location in Dardenne Prairie, the Gateway campus is a "fully built school" with 30,000 more square feet on 34 acres with a chapel, cafeteria, gymnasium and athletic fields, she said. The former school building did not have a cafeteria, football stadium and other facilities.

Gateway Academy, founded in 1992, closed its high school in 2009 and ended pre-kindergarten and elementary classes in May.

Parents and students said what excited them had less to do with having a cafeteria than with staying together. "It's because it's not just a school, it's a family," said Michaela Reinagel, 15, a sophomore from Lake Saint Louis. "It's because everyone is coming and helping out. We all care about the school and we want to be here."

Roberts said it's a school where the principal can hug a child.

"The neat thing about a school like this is that you not only know some of your kids' friends, you pretty much know all of their friends, and you know who their parents are," said Ellen Barr, a parent.

Roberts and Launa Danielson, who also has a daughter who is a sophomore, said the school offers community service opportunities that many schools don't offer.

"It's more than having my child being educated here, which is a fantastic education where she's challenged," Roberts said. "She's learning about a world bigger than herself."

Recruitment will continue in St. Charles County, Watson said. Her original vision in founding the school had been for a school largely serving St. Charles County, accommodating up to 600 students.

The new campus can handle that growth, she said. Watson said the school plans to rearrange rooms to accommodate its instructional program, which emphasizes small classes.

Meanwhile, Watson and parents said carpools should be able to get students to school.

Parents said they didn't lose faith during the academy's recent legal problems. The school was sued in January for nonpayment of $75,000 in rent. Attempts to negotiate a lease or buy the property in Dardenne Prairie were unsuccessful.

In June, the school agreed to a consent judgement giving possession of the school to the owner. The agreement called for Barat to pay $216,000 in back rent and interest. Locks on the building were changed July 11 after an eviction order.

The Dardenne Prairie property originally was listed at $17 million by CB Richard Ellis, a commercial real estate firm. The price was listed at $12 million on Monday. The former Gateway Academy property was listed at $8.5 million by CB Richard Ellis.